


The Freezing Curse

by Taigalessertooth



Category: Wings of Fire - Tui T. Sutherland
Genre: Adventure & Romance, Angst with a Happy Ending, Animus Magic (Wings of Fire), Blood and Gore, Daddy Issues, Drums, GAY DRAGONS, Jade Mountain Academy (Wings of Fire), Lesbian Dragons, M/M, Multi, Original Character(s), Psychological Trauma, World Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:21:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 15,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24599713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taigalessertooth/pseuds/Taigalessertooth
Summary: Thunder only went to Jade Mountain Academy for one thing, drumming, but ended up getting more than he bargained for when he starts to fall in love with a seawing who's hiding a secret and a chilling past.
Relationships: Thunder/Drake
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13





	1. Chapter 1

Thunder bristled, the horrible hybrid dragon had been staring at him ever since they found out they were clawmates. Now that he thought about it, the dark seawing was probably staring at him about as much as the rest of their winglet, yet it was still far more than Thunder was comfortable with. He assumed the dragon staring at him was a mix of a seawing and a nightwing. Although, he was supposed to be the seawing in the winglet, and they already had a nightwing. The dragonets, the principals of the school he corrected himself, probably felt pity for him and put him in a winglet anyway. Thunder laughed to himself, not that the winglet was functional to begin with. A nightwing who hated everyone, a useless traumatized rainwing, a quiet mudwing, an icewing that didn’t want to be there, a nosy sandwing, not to mention their supposed seawing. Thunder didn’t think they’d ever get along.  
The winglet was supposed to be sorting various herbs and plants by using taxonomy, he wasn’t even sure what that meant as he hadn’t been listening when it was explained, it didn’t seem like the rest of the winglet had listened either because they were all looking at the rainwing for help. He was the one who grew up around these types of plants, after all.  
Their teacher, an ancient light green rainwing, thundered over to fuss at them, “Why are all of you just sitting here,” she flared her wings, “Kapok, I expected you at least to help them a little bit.” She prodded the green and grey rainwing, causing him to flinch away. She sighed, reluctantly explaining the activity again.  
After a while, the seawing opened his mouth to speak and everyone immediately whirled around to look at him. He gasped, “Oh jeez,” he started nervously, placing his talon on a large, dark green leaf, “Um, I think this one should go here.” He pointed to a pile of equally long leaves of different shapes, clearing his throat nervously. Kapok nodded and placed the leaf in the pile and the seawing sighed with relief.  
Thunder hadn’t bothered to remember the names of anyone in his winglet, when they met for the first time, the thick and tense atmosphere had nearly suffocated him. He had just wanted to escape to the music hall again. Now he wished he did know their names as he forced himself to help categorize the leaves, knowing they wouldn’t be allowed to leave until they did so.  
They finished quickly, but as they did, a familiar amber mudwing slipped into their small circle, “Hey, I’m Clay, could you all come with me?” He smiled but Thunder could tell the winglet was tense, they knew they were in trouble for something. Before anyone could protest they were swept into the hall and back into a small, dark cave filled with the sound of trickling water. The seawing and rainwing sat close to him. He guessed they were trying to keep their distance from the hostile nightwing and icewing, same as him. After all, he assumed sitting next to the quiet skywing was better than next to an icewing who quite possibly wanted to rip your wings off and feed you to the polar bears.  
Clay limped into the room last and sat down with a sigh, “Some of your teachers told me you all weren’t getting along too well, so I thought it might be a good idea for you to get to know each other better.” He forced a smile, glancing around at the grimacing dragonets.  
“Why would I ever need to get to know them?” the light blue icewing hissed, her sharp teeth flashing.  
Clay sat up defiantly, “Because whether you like it or not, they’re your winglet and you all have to work together.” Clay was definitely bigger than all of the dragonets, although the nightwing was nearly as big as him and her purplish-black presence loomed over everyone like a thick cloud of anxiety. Thunder refused to look at her in fear that the dark dragon could read his mind and see how scared the skywing was of her.  
The icewing sighed and reluctantly sat down beside Clay, who shot her a smile. “I thought we could go around in a circle and say our names and something about ourselves.” Thunder laughed, “How old are we again?” He mumbled under his breath, garnering a chuckle from the brown and green rainwing. Clay ignored him and continued, “I’ll start, my name is Clay and I like food.” He smiled widely, nudging the icewing next to him.  
She grimaced back at him and said nothing, Clay’s shoulders slumped, “Just please go, Snowfox.”  
She huffed, “My name is Snowfox and I’m only here because I have to be.” Clay looked at her disapprovingly, “And, I like fighting.” She sighed. Thunder thought he definitely wanted to avoid her.  
The sandwing piped up, her loud voice filling the cave, “My name is Poi, and I like my friends.” She smiled, her smaller sandy-brown presence suddenly seemed much larger. Poi was probably the friendliest dragon here, but Thunder didn’t like how many questions she asked and how she talked to the meaner dragons. Once she invited Snowfox to play chess with her and she ended up freezing the entire board.  
The slender rainwing spoke next, his voice a shy little squeak, “My name is Kapok and I like reading.” Of course, the dragon was a scrollworm, why else would he be so shy, other than whatever had left the thick gashes across his chest maybe. Thunder was honestly surprised the rainwing could read before he came here, he didn’t think rainwings had schools or anything like that in the rainforest.  
The hybrid dragon spoke next, his voice was quiet but deep, “My name is Drake and,” he paused, “I’m not really sure what I like.” He said, his voice trailing off.  
Clay nodded encouragingly, “That’s okay, you can just tell us something about yourself, if you’re comfortable.” He added.  
“Um, my name is Drake and, uh, I’m a seawing who makes art.” He dipped his head shyly.  
Thunder spoke up without thinking, “Like, full seawing?” he asked, embarrassed by his intrusion. Drake jumped back like he hadn’t expected Thunder to be able to speak. “Um, yes.” Drake replied, “I know it doesn’t look like it with the way my scales are,” He glanced down at his dark talons, cringing, “but I am, I promise.” The seawing was one of the strangest dragons Thunder had ever seen, even having guarded Scarlet’s prisoners for his entire life, he’d never seen a seawing like Drake. Instead of the helpful glowing markings most seawings had, he had spots as dark as the night sky in their place, the same deep black spread over his wing membranes and was placed in two thick stripes under his eyes. Thunder couldn’t think of any reason for a seawing to look like that if he wasn’t a hybrid. He made note to ask Drake about it later when he could fight him if he had to.  
It was Thunder’s turn to introduce himself, “My name is Thunder and, well, I promise I’m usually not an asshole.” He chuckled, feeling like he should say more than that, “Um, and I like drumming.” He hastily added, hoping that was enough for Clay to be happy with him. To Thunder’s relief, he nodded, switching his gaze to the mudwing.  
Thunder saw a glint of pride in Clay’s eyes, he didn’t think this dark brown dragon was Clay’s family, so then what was he proud of, his tribe, maybe? The mudwing spoke in a soft voice, “My name is Driftwood, and I am also not an asshole,” she glanced jokingly at Thunder, “I like Clay.” She smiled at the other mudwing. Thunder realized it wasn’t just a friendly smile either, did this dragon have a crush on Clay, of all dragons. He rolled his eyes and Clay regarded her nervously.  
“And how about you, Scalescorcher?” Thunder shivered, suddenly remembering the tall dark dragon’s name. The nightwing growled quietly, the scales of her dark purple underbelly rippled with the vibrations from her voice as she spoke, “My name is Scalescorcher, and I’m here for entertainment, so you all better get entertaining really fast.” Her eyes narrowed, causing Thunder to think the dragon might kill one of them now, just to make something happen.  
Clay scoffed, “Aren’t you into theater, Scalescorcher? I think I heard that from Queen Glory. If so that was quite a performance, very scary.” The nightwing’s eyes glinted with happiness and what Thunder thought was fear for a moment before settling back into the dark stones they were before. It made sense that she was into theater, though. Even if her scary nightwing demeanor was all just an act, it was a good one, one that caused the whole winglet to fear and respect her.  
“Well, now that we all know a bit more about each other, why don’t we go for a hunt, I’m starved, aren’t you?” He asked before rushing the dragonets to the cave exit and into the prey center.


	2. Chapter 2

Thunder had to admit that he felt quite a bit more comfortable around his winglet as they soared over the forest, looking for anything the dragons could capture to eat. Kapok and Driftwood had flown off together to see if there were any interesting fruits around, and Poi had followed Scalescorcher off in a totally different direction, talking her ear off, and Thunder didn’t know where Snowfox was, meaning he was stuck alone with Drake.  
He hoped the dark blue dragon would leave him alone and go catch some fish or something, but to his displeasure Drake was sidling over towards him, hoping he wouldn’t be noticed. Right as he opened his mouth to speak, the skywing spread his wings open as loud as he could and flapped off, much faster than he knew a seawing could. He swore he heard Drake yell something as he flew off, but didn’t look back to check. He didn’t want to confront the dragon here in front of everyone.  
Before he realized, he flew halfway to the ocean in the distance, the dragons in his winglet were only specks in the distance. He was scanning the trees with his superior vision for anything moving, determined to feed himself without help from others.  
His eyes caught on something far away, a glint of white maybe? It was so far off, closer to the school, that Thunder assumed he imagined it and continued his search. He spotted a deer in a clearing of trees and scooped it up before it even realized a dragon had seen him, Thunder crushed the animal with a flick of his claws and headed back towards the school.   
Some of the dragons had already caught prey, most of them were sharing a large mountain goat Poi had caught. Driftwood looked at him longingly from the small black bird she caught, Thunder rolled his eyes and cut off a quarter of the deer, sliding it over to her before blasting the carcass with flames and digging in himself.  
Finishing what he wanted of the meat, he started towards the exit before overhearing a conversation between Kapok and Clay, “Do you know where Drake went or is he still hunting?” Asked the vibrant blue and yellow dragon, his quiet voice barely cut through the conversations of the others. “I think he went back to his room, he said he wasn’t feeling well.” Clay replied. “Oh.” Said Kapok sadly, returning to the strange red berries he and Driftwood had found.  
Thunder laughed with a twinge of guilt, wondering if he had caused Drake to leave before shaking off the thought. Nevermind, he was finally able to get back to why he came here to begin with, drumming.


	3. Chapter 3

The music hall was empty other than a sandwing plucking a melody on a long, stringed instrument, who nodded to Thunder respectfully before returning to her work. He nodded back and trotted over to the ruby red drum set, complete with brass cymbals and a wide bass drum. He slid into the wooden seat behind the set, apologizing in his head to the sandwing for the noise he was about to make.  
Thunder reached into the black leather pouch around his arm and drew out two polished wooden sticks with gold studded ends. Queen Ruby gave them to him as a gift before he left for the academy. He liked the new queen very much, even if she didn’t seem to know what to do with him when he was in the sky kingdom, assigning him odd jobs here and there to keep him busy and away from his family.  
He thought he would never fit in among other skywings after refusing to fight in the war of sandwing succession, It felt like he still didn’t as all of the skywings at the academy ignored him. Even though they were at peace, others still saw him as a weak coward, some even said it to his face, like his parents. Thunder requested a guard job just to get away from them and had been assigned to an underground prison far from the center of the sky kingdom. He spent most of his time there, befriending the prisoners rather than dragons from his own tribe.  
A sandwing named Pyla taught him how to drum on the cold hard rocks of the cave. She said that drumming was an essential part of sandwing culture, and based on what he’d seen so far at the academy it was probably true. Often he found himself wishing one of the sand dragons would teach him their methods. The sandwings moved with quick rhythm, using their whole bodies to drum, meanwhile, Thunder still felt a little awkward while drumming, his wings felt heavy and in the way most of the time and his tail flapped lazily against the bass, occasionally making him lose his rhythm.  
Even as Thunder got used to playing and his body got into the rhythm of a song he was choreographing, he felt like he was being watched. Even though he wanted badly to go to the academy, he didn’t quite like how open the music hall was, and he always felt like he was disturbing other dragons. However, it felt particularly awkward today, different from the anxious watching feeling he usually got. He glanced up to check if the sandwing was looking at him, which she wasn’t. He played a few more lines before peeking at the door, only to see a dark blue head dart around the corner. Thunder slammed his drumsticks down on the cymbal finally and rushed after Drake, leaving the sandwing wide-eyed in his angered wake.  
He finally caught up to the seawing, pinning his tail down with both of his front talons. Drake whipped around to attempt to dislodge the skywing but stopped quickly when he saw the smoke flowing from Thunder’s mouth. “What do you WANT, seawing?” Thunder yelled, pulling Drake by his tail out of the main hallway and down a darker branch of the tunnel, “I shouldn’t even call you that, I know you’re not a seawing, so what are you?” He roared in Drake’s face.  
The smaller blue dragon whimpered, “I’m a seawing, I- I don’t know what to tell you.” He said, spreading his talons in front of him helplessly.  
“Then why do you look like that? Stop lying to me, I’ve met your kind before and I know none of them have scales like that. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a dragon look like this.” Thunder said critically, thumping his talons against the scales on Drake’s shoulders.  
To his surprise, the limp dragon reached up with his talons to cover his eyes. Thunder had totally expected Drake to fight back instead of just cowering in front of him. Thunder sighed and released the other dragon’s shoulders, sitting back with his wings neatly folded to block the way back to the main tunnels.   
Drake exhaled deeply, “I’m not really supposed to tell anyone, but, I figured it would come up sooner or later.” He hunched his shoulders, “Please promise you won’t tell everyone and ruin my chance to make friends here.” Thunder promised, keeping his talons crossed he wouldn’t have to tell anybody else. What did Drake do, or rather, what did someone do to Drake? What was so terrible that he couldn’t tell anyone. His mind flashed to Queen Coral’s animus daughter and Thunder tried to shake away that thought quickly. “Um, I used to be a soldier, one of the queen’s best, actually,” Drake’s eyes sparkled as he said that, then turned flat again as he continued, “but I did some bad things to a group of icewings and they, well they cursed me, I guess you could say. We don’t really know the full extent of it but it makes everything feel super intense, like fear when dragons deliberately terrify me,” He looked up at Thunder bitterly, “and it makes my scales like this.” He said, gesturing to his neck and face, which were scattered with pitch-black spots instead of vibrant, glowing seawing scales.  
Thunder hissed, “Is that all it does? You’re sure you aren’t secretly half nightwing?”  
Drake laughed, “I wish, maybe then I’d have something useful, like fire. Living like this is like living without light. I wish it wasn’t like this, really, I’m sorry.” Thunder felt a little bad for the sad seawing, he never would’ve guessed he had a spell on him. It definitely wasn’t a seawing spell, or else they would’ve made it more useful and not show up on his scales. Something about it still made Thunder a little uneasy though, but he couldn’t quite figure out why.  
“Why were you watching me though? It’s kinda creepy, especially when it’s the scary shadow dragon who never talks.” Thunder said, trying to change the topic.  
Drake smiled and to Thunder’s surprise even his gums were black, “I think you’re interesting. I mean, most skywings are unforgivingly mean, but you’re more passive and don’t always look angry, and you have an interest other than fighting and being a jerk!”   
He bristled a bit at being called “passive” but brushed it off, “Well, I wish you would’ve just, I don’t know, walked up to and talked to me?”  
“And risk being yelled at in front of other dragons,” Drake chuckled, “I’d rather stay as unnoticed as possible, thanks.”   
Part of the statement resonated with him, he was about to apologize for yelling when a white talon reached out from the darkness and pulled Drake back, gripping his snout with ridged claws. Thunder yelled but hardly anything came out before a second set of talons grabbed him, probably drawing blood as they dug into the top of his snout. He beat his wings against the icewing, but the larger dragon pressed against him, the cold white scales pushing him into the equally cold cave floor. Thunder writhed as rough ropes were tied tightly around his entire body, but it was no use, they were both captives and nobody even knew it.


	4. Chapter 4

Thunder was being dragged further through the cave into the mountain, bumping roughly against the rocks below him. The icewing holding him hostage had tied a rough blindfold around his eyes, making it impossible to see. He didn't know exactly why the icewings had taken him and Drake hostage, but he guessed it was because of the "bad things" Drake had apparently done to them. It all happened so fast, and Thunder was too busy being angry to hear them coming, he felt stupid for wandering away with the strange dragon, even though it wasn't really his fault.  
Suddenly he was thrown against a craggy wall, groaning as his wing bent awkwardly underneath him. He could still hear his kidnappers talking quietly across the room.  
"You're sure that's the right dragon?" Said the youngest-sounding one.  
"Of course it's the right dragon," said a rough, deeper voice, "does that look like a normal seawing to you?" There was a pause, as if the other dragon was thinking. "You're an idiot, I don't know why her greatness decided to send you." He huffed.  
"Probably because I'm expendable." Said the other dragon quietly as the male continued talking. "Anyway, do you think that's enough to restrain it?" He asked, sounding genuinely worried.  
"Yes, her greatness said that carrying chains would slow us down too much, and he's not a firebreather anyway, so there's no way he can get out." She said confidently.  
"Yeah but what about the other one?" They were talking about Thunder. "I'm not so sure." She said.  
"Well there was only supposed to be one, right?" Said the rough voice demandingly.  
"Yeah, but I heard them talking and he knows too much, I'm worried he'll plan a rescue mission or something, and leaving his ears uncovered is probably not helping." She said nervously, Thunder could hear her talons scraping lightly at the stone ground.  
"Well, maybe we should just kill him then, it's not like her greatness likes skywings any better." That made Thunder nervous, they really could kill him right now if they wanted to, with the ropes around him he was helpless. He started desperately thinking of escape plans, maybe he could burn through the ropes, no, there was no way he could open his mouth enough. Maybe he could squirm fast enough to escape, no that was just stupid. Maybe… Thunder stopped thinking and listened intently as a faint popping sound echoed through the cave.  
The icewings heard it too as they stopped talking. There was a loud pop then a roar, a loud "thunk" followed by the sound of tearing. The female dragon screeched and Thunder could only assume someone was being killed, and quite violently, by the sound of it.  
The sound of scales ripping was unmistakable, he’d only heard it twice before, once during one of Scarlet’s arena battles which he was forced by his parents to attend, the second time was when Scarlet killed a sandwing prisoner in front of him, which was an understandably traumatic experience for the young skywing. The male dragon’s pained roar had morphed into a low gurgle as a loud squelching-spurting sound erupted from his body, making Thunder quite glad that he was blindfolded.  
The smell of iron-rich blood filled his nostrils suddenly along with the sound of talons scrabbling away on stone, the female icewing was finally running away from her friend’s murder. Thunder wondered who had killed the other dragon, surely Drake hadn’t broken free. As if on queue, the seawing yelped, “Oh god.” He whimpered. Thunder gagged as the blood-scent went farther up his nostrils as Drake fumbled with the rope around his snout, smearing blood all over him.  
As soon as the rope was off, he gasped for air, shaking the blindfold off to see a blood-drenched Drake, the deep blue fluid standing out starkly against his dark scales. Thunder turned to vomit on the ground, only adding to the smell in the cave, he turned back to Drake, carefully avoiding looking at the body. “What the fuck is wrong with you.” He yelled weakly, “Did you have to kill him?” He pleaded. Drake was kneeling, his talons held over his head apologizing profusely. Wanting to look away from the groveling seawing, Thunder glanced at the body on the opposite side of the cavern and immediately regretted it as he felt like puking again.  
He could clearly see the rough tears along the dragon’s underbelly, as well as the entrails spilling out. The dragon’s throat was cleanly ripped out and his neck was limp.  
Thunder was really surprised he hadn’t passed out again, “Was he not dead enough the first time you killed him?” He cried, looking anywhere other than the mutilated corpse.  
“I’m so sorry, he said he was going to kill you and, and I really can’t be kidnapped right now. I’m sorry, it’s not my fault, I’m sorry.” He was genuinely crying now, as if there weren’t enough bodily fluids in the room.  
“Wait how did you even get out of the ropes? Actually, don’t answer right now, let’s get out of here, please.” Thunder said, finally calming down enough to drag the sniffling seawing out of the cave.  
He didn’t know which way they had come, so the best he could do was guess. The tunnel was thin and Drake was desperately grasping Thunder’s tail, trying to keep up. Thunder passed the cove he and Drake were talking in and finally knew where he was, his spirits rose, he could finally get help. He turned the corner, finally able to get rescue and. There was a sandwing, the same one that was with him in the music hall.  
As soon as she saw them her eyes went wide and quickly squinted shut, she puffed out her wings and inhaled deeply, puffing out her cheeks.  
Thunder panicked, forgetting that there were other students to watch out for, “Wait please don’t freak out, I mean, that weird pufferfish thing you’re doing might actually be your version of freaking out, but please don’t do it anymore.” He stammered.  
“Please don’t tell me that’s not icewing blood.” She said oddly calmly.  
“Uh, totally not, we just, um, spilled a bunch of paint, yeah that’s what it is.” He hoped this dragon was stupid enough to believe it and let them go.  
She settled, releasing the air in her cheeks, keeping her eyes closed, “I don’t believe that for a second, is everyone okay at least?” Asked the small dragon.  
Thunder sighed, “Yes, I think we’re both okay, though obviously the dragon we killed isn’t.” He said, trying to inject some humor into the situation to ease their nerves, Piper flinched slightly and squinted her eyes harder. “I want to at least wash the blood off before marching through the school like nothing happened, can you help?” Thunder asked desperately.  
She opened one eye to look at him and nodded, diving back down the tunnel they just came out of. “Wait, I don’t think-” Thunder started, nervous about going back into the tunnel, but followed anyway so he didn’t lose sight of the pale sandwing.  
She dashed quickly through the tunnel, thankfully in a different direction than the body. Here the cave was much wider and open. Eventually, the sandwing skidded to a stop in front of a small but deep pool in the middle of a cave. She breathed out a plume of fire just in time to see Drake dive into the pool, a cloud of the other dragon’s blood evaporated off of him. When he emerged again he looked good as new, other than the mildly traumatized expression on his face. “I just want to dive to the bottom of the ocean right now.” He sighed before submerging himself again.  
Thunder splashed the freezing cold water on his face and anywhere else that had blood smeared on it, too afraid he wouldn’t be able to swim in water that deep. “Thank you so much.” He said gratefully to the sandwing.  
“Yeah,” she replied, “you really owe me one now. And by one I mean plenty of answers.” She said firmly.  
“Yeah, I guess that’s fair. What’s your name?” He asked.  
“Sandpiper, but please call me Piper. I’m afraid my parents were expecting a seawing instead.” She said quickly, a slight sarcastic laugh tugging at her voice.  
“Okay, Piper,” Said Thunder, smiling back, “You have to promise me not to say anything to other students, please.”  
She nodded.


	5. Chapter 5

Thunder explained everything that happened, leaving out the part about Drake’s curse, as he was still under the water and he felt like it was rude to break his promise at this point. Piper had agreed to tell the closest principal and bring them here to talk to them.  
Thunder splashed the surface of the water, worried for a moment that Drake had drowned, “Hey Drake, I think you should come up now.” He said as the seawing’s head popped up on the surface of the water.  
“Do I have to.” He whined, creating huge ripples as he swished his tail underneath him.  
“Yes, please, I clearly have a lot of questions.” He said, slightly annoyed at the dragon.  
He dragged himself reluctantly out of the pool and walked over to Thunder, keeping his head down, his wings still dripping with icy water.  
“First off, thank you. I know you didn’t want to kill that dragon, but at least I’m still alive.” Thunder said reassuringly. “But also how did you get out of the ropes, they tied you the same way, right?”  
“Oh, um," He hesitated, "the curse does this thing where it will make me hurt myself if it means getting free or staying alive.” He said, gesturing to the deep indentations on his wrists that Thunder hadn’t noticed before.  
“So no superpowers?” Thunder asked, half-joking.  
Drake laughed, “No I don’t think so, other than desperation.” He said, swirling his tail in the pool of water.  
“Even though I’d rather forget about it, I have to ask. Why did you do that to that dragon? I feel like any one of those injuries would’ve killed him.” Thunder asked nervously, his experiences had taught him not to trust other dragons and he was ready to run from or fight Drake.  
“I was just really scared and angry.” He said in a half whisper, “I really didn’t want them to kill you, or me, though I’m not sure what exactly they would do to me.” He said sheepishly. “Either they want revenge or, maybe they want the curse back, although I have no idea why.” Drake said, chewing on his talon. Thunder guessed that was reasonable enough, if not a bit excessive on the icewing’s part.  
“What did you actually do to them anyway, ‘bad things’ is really not descriptive enough for me to be on your side right now.” Said Thunder.  
“Well, I kinda almost killed one of their generals. Under the queen’s orders, of course.” He quickly added. “And I’m pretty sure they didn’t mean to curse me to begin with.”  
“Wait, what, how does someone accidentally curse you?” Thunder asked, curious.  
“Well, she was wearing this silver necklace, the general was. I was worried it might be animus touched so she couldn’t be killed or something so I took it. I think somehow it was holding the curse, but I still don’t know why an icewing general would be wearing it, or why she wasn’t under its control.” He shook his head, shaking water on Thunder’s talons.  
Thunder jumped back to avoid the spray, “That does seem a bit weird, you’re sure you don’t have superpowers.”  
“I’m pretty sure, but I do have a theory that maybe it’s just not showing them to me. I’m pretty sure that’s not true though, or else it would be trying harder to keep me alive.” Drake said, scrunching his forehead in thought.  
Thunder had a few theories of his own, ones that involved Drake dying, “Can animus spells be that specific?” Thunder asked instead.  
“It’s not really like a normal spell.” Drake said, averting his eye contact to stare at the water instead, “It’s like a parasite almost, it just makes me feel super horrible all the time, and sometimes it even talks to me but the Queen says that I’m just crazy.” He scratched the ground nervously.  
“Wait,” Thunder said, surprised, “It’s like another dragon? Inside of you?”  
“I guess, though I’m pretty sure it’s not a dragon. I really don’t think I’m that mad yet.” He took a step away from Thunder just in case.  
“Whatever the reason, that was insane, I do not like being kidnapped, no more kidnapping from now on please.” Thunder said trying to make Drake feel better, he smiled weakly. “We should probably go to the healers just in case, those marks look pretty bad and my wing is still kinda sore from the position I was in.” Thunder held out his talon, “Come on.” Drake smiled, using his talon to stand back up, they started towards the healer’s cave.  
On their way there, they ran into Piper who was on her way back with Sunny, “One of you, show me where it happened.” Sunny looked panicked, something like this hadn’t happened at her school in a long time.  
“Drake, I’ll go, you go to the healers.” He said, looking at the seawing desperately. To Thunder’s relief, he walked off quickly after shooting him a look that he couldn't quite decipher.  
“Is he hurt?” Sunny asked, exasperated. Thunder shook his head and led the way to the cave where the body was. “What actually happened?” Sunny asked, “I only heard about an attempted kidnapping.”  
“Just a warning, there is an extremely dead dragon in here. I don’t know where his partner went.” Thunder heard Sunny gasp.  
He refused to go back into the cave with the body, remembering the sickening smell from before. Sunny glanced into the cave and emerged quickly, looking pale. “He is very dead.” She said, “How did you do that?”  
Thunder didn’t want to get Drake in trouble or reveal his secret but didn’t see another choice, “That was Drake, but he was defending us.” He said, still wanting to protect his new friend.  
“He’s already killing dragons? Queen Coral warned me about his disability but maybe it’s worse than she thought.” Sunny said sadly. “Er, not to say he wasn’t justified in it, I’d rather he killed than any of my students be kidnapped. It’s just, this is particularly gruesome.” She added somewhat frantically.  
Thunder hadn’t thought about the curse as a disability, maybe that was a good way to look at it. He was thankful that she already knew about the curse but surprised she had even accepted Drake into the school, “It’s not, that bad, really. He’s a good dragon, I think. It was really just self-defense he just got a little, uh, carried away.” He chuckled nervously.  
“Do you think that, Thunder?” She said gently.  
“Um, yes. I don’t think he would go out of his way to hurt anyone.” He said, not fully believing himself honestly.  
Sunny nodded, “You can go to your sleeping cave, I want to talk with Drake myself to figure things out but I appreciate you telling me.”  
Thunder walked away as fast as he could, wanting to get out of this cursed tunnel and as far from the body as possible. It was night now, so not many dragons were still awake. He wondered where Piper went but assumed she was in her sleeping cave. He entered his own cave and headed straight for his spot, ignoring the empty pool where Drake slept and the rainwing that was watching him critically.  
“Where were you, it’s a bit late, isn’t it?” Kapok said suspiciously, hanging upside down from his leafy cocoon.  
“Why are you being nosy, is Poi teaching you things?” Thunder asked, glaring at the rainwing. Kapok laughed but didn’t retaliate, which Thunder was thankful for. He tried to sleep through all of his worries.


	6. Chapter 6

Thunder woke up late the next morning, but not too late to miss breakfast. Kapok was already missing as he headed to the prey center. As he entered the cave he noticed a pair of seawings sharing a small pile of fish as well as two sandwings, one of them being Piper, who noticed him as soon as he entered and approached him.  
“Hi, Thunder.” She smiled teasingly, “Isn’t it a bit late to just be waking up? Gosh what did you do last night, you look tired as hell.” She smirked knowingly.  
Thunder flicked his wings irritably at her, he was still tired, although he refused to admit it to the snarky sandwing. By now the other sandwing had come over to investigate and Thunder recognized that the other brown dragon was Poi, the nosy dragon from his winglet.  
“Hey Thunder,” She said nonchalantly, “I see you met my sister.” Poi put her wing around the other small dragon despite Piper’s unwillingness. He felt a bit stupid now for not realizing the sandwings were somehow related, they were about the same size, and their strong attitudes definitely matched.  
“Oh.” He said stupidly, not knowing what else to say. “She told me everything, so don’t worry about keeping secrets from me.” Poi said, smiling. It was hard for Thunder to stop himself from looking shocked, he glanced at Piper, betrayed, had she really broken her promise that fast. He probably should’ve expected it since she was Poi’s sister.  
“Um, about you and Drake.” Piper said quickly, shaking her head, “and how cute you two are together.” She grinned innocently, evidently trying to prove her innocence to Thunder, who realized Poi probably didn’t know everything, nobody, not even her own sister, would ever trust Poi with any serious secrets like Drake’s curse. “What?” Thunder said, surprised, “We aren’t cute, we aren’t even a thing, I just met Drake.”  
Poi giggled, “That’s how Piper said you’d act, you have to be the most oblivious dragon at the academy.” He had no idea what she meant.  
“Yeah, like how you haven’t even noticed that Poi totally has a crush on you.” Piper raised her brows and winked at Thunder.  
Poi shoved her hard, “I do not, you said you wouldn’t tell!” Poi fussed while Piper laughed.  
“You’re both weird,” Thunder said, shaking his head. “I’m going to go as far away as I can and eat without two chattering sandwings interrupting me.” He declared as he dove off the prey center balcony.  
“Okay, just don’t be late for class! We have fighting today!” Poi called after him as he left. The fighting class was definitely something Thunder was curious about, he wondered if they were going to be fighting each other or a teacher, or if they were fighting dragons at all. Maybe it was just another listening class where they learned about the tribe’s different fighting styles. Thunder really hoped it wasn’t the latter. He was probably the worst at fighting out of all skywings having not been in the war, and he definitely wanted a way to protect himself, especially after being kidnapped and almost killed.  
It hadn’t occurred to him to check on Drake, though he assumed he was probably out of the healer’s den by now, but maybe he was still being scolded by the principals, probably Tsunami, he thought with a laugh. The uptight seawing seemed to have gotten even bossier after her sister, Anemone, was sent back to the seawing palace, he honestly hoped nervous Drake hadn’t been yelled at for what happened, if anything it should be Thunder’s fault for leading Drake right into his kidnapper’s talons. He should really apologize for that.  
He hunted for a while without success, he owed that to his distractedness, but by now it was getting close to time for his classes, he sighed and went back to the prey center empty-stomached and stalked to the main hall, where the class was supposed to be held.  
He entered and shuffled over near Drake, who smiled at him, whispered a hello and brushed their wings together briefly. Poi caught his eye and waved at him sheepishly from across the hall, to which Thunder returned a dismissive nod. He decidedly did not have a crush on Poi, he didn’t even understand why she had a crush on him anyway. Was he really as oblivious as she said?  
“Sorry I’m late,” Said a royal blue seawing, stomping into the great hall with a bulging cloth bag thrown over her shoulder. Thunder assumed this was Tsunami, head of school and resident grumpy seawing. “I’m teaching you self defense techniques today, I wanted to call this a fighting class, but apparently dragons aren’t supposed to solve problems with violence or something.” She rolled her eyes, “So I’m just supposed to teach you techniques to disarm or disable any potential attackers, not that there should be any of those if you keep out of trouble.” She glanced at Thunder and Drake accusingly.  
“I have a question.” Kapok said, raising his wing.  
Tsunami sighed, “Already? What is it?”  
“Will we have to fight each other? ‘Cuz I’m not sure I’ll be very good at that.” He said shyly, glancing over at Snowfox. Thunder noticed he was sitting in a group with Driftwood and Poi and hoped they weren’t corrupting the poor shy rainwing.  
“No, not today. I have to actually teach you things, then I want you all to practice disarming me. The hope is by the time you do “defend yourselves” from each other you’ll be ready for it.” Tsunami reached into the bag she brought and drew out a small knife. “If an assassin attacks you, they’re likely to have a weapon. Sometimes they won't but these make it easier for them to penetrate scales, so you’ll want to get rid of these as fast as possible.” She touched the blade to show it was dull.  
Thunder hadn’t been paying attention in most of his classes, and he was still a bit drowsy from the fiasco yesterday, but he was determined to stay focused during this, at least, before Drake started distracting him. “Are you okay?” He whispered, prodding Thunder gently with his talon. “Yes, are you?” Thunder whispered back.  
“Yes, just a bit nervous. I shouldn’t have let the other icewing get away, maybe they’ll come back for me.” He shuddered at the thought.  
“After what you did to her partner I don’t think she will.” He joked.  
“Yeah but,” Drake looked up at him, his eyes whirlpools of worry, “I don’t want to put you- anyone in danger again. I’m really sorry, Thunder.” He said, looking down at his talons.  
“Hey, it’s okay. I’m sure the principals will watch you more closely now, maybe that’s why we have this class today, so we can protect ourselves better.” Thunder reassured him.  
“I’m still a bit worried that-” Drake was cut off by Tsunami yelling at them.  
“Hey, did you two not get enough time to talk this morning?” She scolded, “You of all dragons should be paying attention.” She said, glaring at them.  
“I’m sorry Mrs.Tsunami,” Said Thunder, unsure if Mrs was an appropriate term for her, “I’m paying attention.”  
“That’s professor Tsunami,” That was the title Thunder was looking for, “and if you were listening, why don’t you come take this knife from me?” She spun it around in her talons, spreading her wings into battle position.  
Suddenly Thunder really regretted not paying attention to her, he hardly had any experience fighting other dragons, much less stealing knives right out of their talons. He approached her, standing awkwardly, his wings were in the way again. Suddenly the seawing lunged at him, sweeping at his talons with her muscular tail. Thunder stumbled away as she jabbed the knife at him, even if it wasn’t sharp he’d still rather not be poked by it. The skywing caught his balance and shoved his wings in her face, causing her to sputter and swat at him, this was a trick he’d used to defend himself when he was in the hatchery, Thunder was surprised other skywings didn’t use it more. While Tsunami was trying to fight his wings away, he reached out and grabbed her arm, twisting it so she yelped, surprised by his quick movement. Thunder pushed her down as her tail thumped against his side and ripped the knife from her talons, switching it to hold it to her throat.  
She sighed, swiping the knife from him and rearranging herself to retain her pride, “That wasn’t at all what I told you to do, even if it did technically work, most dragons don’t use such unorthodox methods of fighting. If I was actually trying to kill you I would’ve ripped through your wings.” Thunder was proud of himself, although he didn’t show it because he was trying to avoid more scolding from the seawing princess. He returned to sit beside Drake, who looked overjoyed.  
“Good job.” He said, bumping his tail against Thunder’s, “I’m glad that wasn’t me.”  
“Shut up before you get us in more trouble.” Thunder said, shoving him over with his shoulder. Poi caught his eye again and winked at him. Thunder glared back and shuffled farther away from Drake, fully comprehending what the wink meant.  
Tsunami asked the rest of the winglet if they wanted to volunteer to steal the dagger from her, “Using the methods I actually taught you,” she’d said. Poi had volunteered first, being quickly pinned down by the larger seawing. Tsunami praised her for attempting to use the technique she had taught, sweeping the other dragon’s talons out from under them, but told her it might be bad to use that exact technique because of Poi’s venomous tail barb. Snowfox also volunteered, expertly flicking the dagger out of Tsunami’s talons and grasping her throat. It was then that Thunder realized he feared the icewing, but maybe that was the trauma talking.


	7. Chapter 7

Once they were dismissed, Kapok and Driftwood invited Thunder to come to the library, which Thunder was surprised by, but accepted, having never been to the library before. He wanted to invite Drake as well, but when he looked around the dark blue dragon was gone.  
“That was so cool!” Said Kapok, trotting along beside Thunder, “I had no idea you were such a good fighter.”  
“Well, I’m really not. I’m really only good at running away, and winning that fight was pure luck, Tsunami definitely won’t fall for that again.” Thunder chuckled. He, Kapok, and Driftwood were heading to the library. Thunder hadn’t planned on going there but guessed he could read some scrolls about animus spells while he was there, maybe there was a way to negate Drake’s curse.  
Thunder was surprised to learn that Kapok was the more talkative one in the group despite how shy he appeared. Driftwood was more soft-spoken, occasionally speaking up to correct the rainwing or to agree with him. They arrived at the library, where Kapok flopped down on one of the large cushions in a beam of sunlight, Driftwood sat down beside him after pulling a scroll from the “fiction” portion of the shelves.  
Thunder introduced himself to the librarian, Starflight, who had evidently had already heard of him. “Oh, you’re friends with Drake, aren’t you?” Said the nightwing, rummaging under his desk. He produced a large, heavy scroll from a drawer, Thunder was surprised with how easily the blind dragon navigated his space. Starflight got up from his desk to pull another, significantly smaller scroll down from a higher shelf. “Could you give these to him please. He asked for this one,” He said, pointing to the smaller scroll, “But I think he’ll find some use in this one as well.” He said, running his talon along the edges of the scroll. “Would you like something too?” Starflight asked expectantly.  
“Oh, no thank you.” Thunder replied, causing the nightwing to look a bit sad as he returned to his desk.  
Thunder wondered what kinds of scrolls Drake had requested. Settling down in a corner of the library, he realized one of the scrolls was about the royal seawing massacre. He shivered, remembering the cautionary tales of the royal seawing animus, Albatross, going mad and killing the seawing queen along with a skywing princess. Skywings were raised to fear power, being told stories of animuses going mad with it, or firescaled dragonets killing their own mothers. The mountain tribe killed any dragon with special powers, this was even truer now that Ruby was queen, having been enchanted by an animus to become a whole different dragon, she had reason to fear them. Sometimes Thunder wondered what would happen if he was an animus. The blood still runs in the tribe, so there was always a chance, after all, Queen Coral had an animus son and daughter, even after so much time after Albatross’s death. Would he be smart enough to keep it a secret, or even to realize that he had such dangerous powers, the thought had always scared him.  
He placed the seawing scroll aside, choosing not to read it, he unrolled the larger scroll. It was a list of icewing animuses, along with the gifts they used their powers on to give to their tribe. It was totally the opposite of how the skywings treated animus powers. What if one spell was enough to make the dragon go crazy? Or what if they added something else onto their gift along with what was expected? The risk was too high for animus magic to exist, in Thunder’s opinion.  
He read through some of the older gifts, a cliff that killed any other tribes who tried to cross it, narwhal horns that cured frostbreath injuries, an indestructible palace, it all made the icewings sound untouchable. No wonder they were all so stuck up, their tribe seemed invincible. It made Thunder wonder for a minute what the skywing tribe would be like if they had living animus dragons, would they be as powerful as icewings? He shook that traitorous thought off, rolling up the scroll to bring to Drake. He waved goodbye to Kapok and Driftwood, who were both too wrapped up in the scroll to acknowledge him.  
He started looking at their sleeping cave, peeking in quietly to see Drake bent over, scribbling something on a piece of paper. Thunder crept forward into the cave until he was hovering over the other dragon’s shoulder. He could tell now that Drake was drawing something, it was a fierce looking skywing, snarling at another dragon that didn’t look finished quite yet. It was pretty good.  
Suddenly, Drake grabbed Thunder’s snout, turning around to pin him down, “It’s me!” Thunder yelped through his closed snout, “I’m sorry.” He started laughing uncontrollably at the shocked look on Drake’s face as he clambered off of the skywing.  
“It’s rude to sneak up on other dragons, don’t they teach you skywings anything.” Said Drake, trying hard to stop himself from laughing.  
“To be fair, it’s also rude to attack other dragons who are just trying to exist in their own sleeping cave.” Thunder said, sitting up and rolling his eyes.  
Drake snorted, “You’re the one who always complains about Poi nosing around in your business, maybe you shouldn’t be doing the same to others.” He said, rolling up the drawing and placing it on his scroll cart.  
“Sure.” Thunder said, dropping the library scrolls on Drake’s scroll cart as well, “Who were you drawing anyway? Was it Scarlet?” He asked, remembering the ferocious snarling face on the skywing Drake had drawn.  
The seawing looked away sheepishly, “It was supposed to be you.”  
“I’m not that scary though, am I?” He asked, surprised.  
“No, not usually. I thought you looked cool and fierce.” Drake said, pulling the drawing back out to point at the sketchy form of the other dragon, “This is supposed to be Tsunami, but it’s obviously not done yet.”   
“Oh, I really hope others don’t make a big deal out of that, I kinda cheated, to be fair.” Thunder said, flicking his wings.  
“Well I thought it was clever.” Drake said, puffing out his chest.  
There was a pause as Drake added a few details to Tsunami, including bulging eyes and facial fur. “Hey, that’s not what she looks like at all!” Thunder said, batting at Drake with his wings, both of them laughing.  
“Sorry for getting you in trouble by the way.” Drake said, folding the drawing and flicking it away.  
“No, I’m sorry for not checking on you as soon as I woke up, and for leading you to where the icewings could capture you in the first place.” Thunder said, tapping his claws rhythmically on the stone ground.  
“What! There’s no way you can blame yourself for that.” Drake said, flicking him with his tail, “It was my fault for leading them here to begin with.”  
“Well, maybe we should just settle with blaming the icewings for attacking us instead of politely asking you for their animus curse back.” Thunder said humorously.  
“You can’t blame an entire tribe for that!” Drake said, stopping Thunder’s anxious drumming by stepping on his talons.  
Thunder sighed, holding up Drake’s talons, neatly folding them between his own, “You can’t just be happy, huh?” He chuckled, meeting his eyes. Thunder quickly dropped Drake’s talons, recognizing the tension that had suddenly formed between them. “Uh, so, is that the only art you’ve been keeping secret, or are you just gonna keep the rest from me, too?” He asked, smiling awkwardly.  
Drake narrowed his eyes at Thunder, then, making his decision, slowly pulled out another rolled up drawing from the cart, unfurling it to reveal a detailed ink drawing of Jade mountain, a group of tiny rainbow dragons were flying high above it. “That’s really good, who’s that?” Thunder asked, pointing to the small dragons.  
“It’s the school founders, but I couldn’t get enough details to actually make it look like them so they’re kinda just specks.” He laughed, retrieving another drawing, this time of a rainwing with his head dangling out of the leafy sleeping pod the tribe slept in, his long tongue was drooping from his mouth. Thunder laughed at the face the dragon was making, “Who’s that?” He asked.  
“It’s Misty, the rainwing from Obsidian winglet, I don’t think you’ve met him yet.” Drake answered, rummaging around on the scroll cart. Thunder wondered if Misty was as dopey as the drawing made him out to be.  
The next drawing was of an icewing covered in bright red blood, his tongue flicked out as if he could taste the gore in the air, his horns curled back menacingly. “This is kinda dark, but I really like how the anatomy turned out, don’t you? I’m not usually good at realism but this one came to me easily.” Drake said, sliding the drawing so that Thunder could see it better. The dragon was terrifying, his glaring blue eyes seemed to pierce him through the paper, causing Thunder to wonder how Drake had managed to trap such a scary dragon in a small paper prison.  
Drake cleared his throat, bringing Thunder out of his trance, “Well, my paintings are all in the art hall since there’s not enough room in here. Have you been there yet?” He asked. Thunder shook his head, letting Drake lead him out of their sleeping cave and down the tunnel to the art hall.


	8. Chapter 8

For a while things were good, Thunder spent a majority of his time with Drake, flying with Drake, teaching him how to drum, Drake even showed him some of his secret drawings of Thunder, which he had to admit, were quite attractive. The entire time Drake was happy, and so was Thunder.  
One morning, Thunder woke up to Drake missing. The sun had not fully risen yet and a faint orange beam of light was slowly creeping up the wall through the window. Thunder grumbled, rolling off the rock ledge he slept on. He didn’t want to worry about Drake’s absence, but felt that something was wrong. After being kidnapped once before, he worried every time Drake disappeared without telling him.   
Hoping for the best, he yawned and headed for the art hall. Thunder didn’t even make it there before finding Drake, who was looking out of the entrance to the great hall, the vibrantly orange sunrise contrasting with the glum look on the seawing’s face.  
Thunder hurried over to his worried friend, brushing their wings together, “What’s wrong, isn’t it a bit early to be this upset.” Thunder smiled, hoping to make Drake laugh. It didn’t work.  
“Thunder I’m worried about us, about you.” Drake said, turning to look at him with empty eyes.  
“What? Why? If it’s because of the icewings again don’t worry, I can protect myself.” Thunder said, spreading his wings confidently and reciprocating Drake’s eye contact.  
Drake shook his head, causing Thunder to frown worriedly, “That’s not it, I’m confident you can protect yourself from icewings, but I’m not sure how you’d fair against your best friend.” He said, twining his tail with Thunder’s.  
He took a moment to process these words, getting momentarily caught on Drake calling Thunder his best friend, “Surely you don’t mean, you’d, no you couldn’t, I’d stop you.” Thunder said, his thoughts spilling out of his mouth as he realized what Drake had meant.  
Drake looked down at his talons, “Thunder I had a terrible dream, I hurt you, destroyed you like I did that icewing.” He grimaced, pulling his tail away to wrap around his talons, “I know that’s not me, I’d never hurt you, I promise. I’m not so sure the curse wouldn’t though. I’ve been feeling happier than I ever have, it’s unnatural. I’m worried the curse will rip that happiness away from me. Thunder, I don’t want to hurt you.” Drake sighed, his eyes were sad pools of water instead of the cheerful raindrops Thunder was used to seeing.  
Thunder wrapped his wings around Drake, squeezing him tight. “I understand. We can’t see each other anymore if you really think it endangers me that much. I hope you know I’ll never stop looking for a way to cure you, I want to see you safe and happy, okay?” Thunder said, feeling Drake bury his head in his neck.  
“I’ve already talked to the principals, they said I can take private classes here, I just can’t be around you, or other dragons for that matter. I’m sorry.” Drake cried.  
“It’s not your fault.” Was the last thing Thunder said to him. After forcing himself away from Thunder, Drake shuffled off towards the principal’s quarters, refusing to look back.  
Thunder stopped himself from crying, pushing the thoughts out of his head like Drake was another friendly prisoner Scarlet had ripped away from him. Except this time rather than the former skywing queen, he pinned their suffering on the entire icewing tribe and swore vengeance.


	9. Chapter 9

Thunder spent most of his time in the library now, studying the icewing scrolls, hoping for anything that said something about a cursed necklace or rogue animus icewings to no avail. He didn’t have the energy to drum anymore, and no matter how much Piper and Poi begged Thunder to play with them, he just couldn’t bring himself to do it. Driftwood and Kapok tried their best to distract him, bringing him weird objects and fruits they found in their trips outside, they reminded him that they were his friends too, and that Drake was only doing what was best. But Thunder couldn’t just let go that easily, even if he wished he could. He thought it was odd that Drake’s leaving was getting to him this bad, after all, he was used to losing friends. Maybe it was because Drake was his first real friend, a dragon who chose to spend his time with him rather than being trapped and stuck with his company.  
Drake seemed to have disappeared. Nobody had seen him for the past week, and the principals refused to tell him anything about Drake’s wearabouts. Thunder felt as if all of his potential was being wasted, hadn’t he come here to accomplish his dreams and become a better dragon? Now he couldn’t even use the fancy drumsticks queen Ruby had given to him, he felt unworthy of owning them.   
They had a group conference that day, all of the winglets were gathering in the main hall for checkups and headcounts. Thunder didn’t want to attend, knowing they’d be one seawing short, but Kapok begged him to go. Claiming they’d get in more trouble if they had a seawing and a skywing missing. Thunder begrudgingly agreed.  
Snowfox sneered at him as Thunder sat down next to Poi and Kapok. She had been significantly meaner since Drake left, nobody in the winglet knew about his kidnapping, but he had a suspicious feeling that Snowfox did, although he couldn’t be sure.  
“How are you?” Poi asked, nudging Thunder to distract him from the glowering icewing. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, Poi and her sister had done the most to make Thunder feel better. Whenever he was feeling especially bad and didn’t feel like leaving his sleeping cave, they brought their own little drums to him and played. It always made him laugh to see the little sandwings parading through the halls with their miniscule drums, and it made him happy to know that other dragons still cared about him.  
“I’m okay.” Thunder said, smiling slightly back at Poi.  
“Piper finished working on her drawing last night, she said she’d show you later after this mess.” Poi said. Piper started making art after seeing the drawings Drake had left for Thunder. He didn’t really know why but Thunder assumed it was to try and make him feel better.  
“That’s good. By the way, aren’t we missing a dragon?” He asked. Almost the entire school was here by now, and their nightwing, Scalescorcher, was still missing from their circle. As if she could read their thoughts, she materialized out of the crowd behind them, silently joining the circle right as the crowds fell silent.  
He didn’t have any interest in listening to Sunny blabbering on about school accomplishments, and becoming your best self, and blah blah. He looked around at the other dragons instead. A few of them were whispering to each other, hoping to not be noticed. None of the other winglets seemed to be missing any parts.  
Thunder sighned, looking down at his talons instead. Their nightwing seemed different from usual, Scalescorcher was twitching nervously and kept glancing at Thunder like she had something to say. He looked up at her, raising his brow, thinking what do you want, nerd just in case she could read minds. To his relief she looked away quickly and turned to stare at the principals instead.  
After the conference, Thunder hurried back to his sleeping cave, which Kapok didn’t stress about too much, luckily. He settled down on his rock ledge, trying his best to ignore the empty pool that Drake used to occupy. He was reading another icewing scroll about Darkstalker. There were a lot of ghost stories written about the power-hungry nightwing, and Thunder certainly thought the enchantment on Drake was something he would leave as a hidden gift to the icewings, but there were too many loose ends to that story. It didn’t explain why the icewings had used the curse on Drake, wouldn’t it be icewing specific? And even if it wasn’t, how had they turned the spell around to use it to their advantage? It didn’t make sense, it had to have been an icewing enchantment for them to want it back so badly.  
Thunder nearly jumped off his ledge as a large nightwing hurtled into his room, for a second he thought it was Darkstalker, returning for revenge. Instead, it was Scalescorcher, out of breath, wearing a large leather breastplate that rattled with her breathing.  
“Um, hi?” Thunder said, righting himself.  
“You know how to fix this, right? Your seawing friend is in trouble.” Scalescorcher said, Thunder saw worry in her eyes for the first time.  
“What!” He yelled, tossing the scroll at a metal scroll rack, causing it to rattle across the floor, “How do you know?”  
“I had a vision, right before the assembly. I don’t know if it’s already happened but it’s been coming on worse now, so we need to hurry. You know where he is, right?” She asked.  
“No! Only the principals know that.” He shook his head, “I need to head to the ice kingdom now.”  
“No you don’t.” Said a high pitched voice that made Thunder freeze, had Piper overheard their entire conversation, “Not without backup, at least.” She said, pulling a leafy green rainwing through the doorway with her, “We’re coming with you.” She said confidently.  
“We are?” Kapok said nervously.  
Piper ignored him, “Besides, we don’t even know if he’s gone yet. We do need to check as soon as possible though.” She said, beckoning Thunder through the door, Scalescorcher followed.  
They rushed to the main hall, knocking a mudwing off balance in the process. Thunder rushed an apology before running to the principal’s quarters. He ducked his head into Sunny’s room, then Clay’s, both were empty. Damn, he thought, Tsunami will never tell me. He knocked on the final door in the hallway, hearing a groan and loud talonsteps approaching the door. Thunder gestured desperately at the other three dragons to help him, Piper came to stand next to him, bumping his wings encouragingly.  
The grouchy seawing answered the door, took one look at the group of dragons, and closed the door again, “Wait, professor!” Piper said, knocking rapidly on the door, “This is urgent! You can’t just ignore your students, can you?” She said, then echoing in a whisper, “Can she?”  
“I’m trying to get some work done instead of socializing, if you don’t mind.” Tsunami said bitterly.  
“Well, fine then, I guess your student can stay kidnapped then.” Piper said sarcastically.  
To Thunder’s relief, the door swung back open, “What?” Roared Tsunami, pushing past them to stomp down the hall to a locked door at the other end of the hallway. She unlocked it, and pushed it open. Thunder never noticed the door, he always assumed it was for guests or storage, but now he could see it was a fully furnished room, at least, it used to be.  
Wooden scroll racks layed strewn across the floor and a pile of blankets was ripped apart, Thunder also noticed some paintings in Drake’s style hung about the room. Drake was gone and had clearly put up a fight. Tsunami growled, “All of you go back to your sleeping caves. Now.” She added, glaring at Thunder, who had no plans to do so.  
Tsunami flew off towards the prey hall, and Thunder, Piper, Kapok, and Scalescorcher took off just as fast, ignoring the concerned looks from the other dragons milling about the main hall.  
“Wait,” Kapok said, “Where are we going?”  
“I guess the ice kingdom would be a good place to check?” Piper suggested.  
Thunder didn’t care where they were going, he didn’t want these other dragons weighing him down. He was a much stronger flyer than them, but backup would be a good thing to have when facing an unknown amount of icewings. They would probably be proper guards this time, instead of the two misfits that had captured him before.  
“I think I know.” Scalescorcher said, Thunder wheeled around to face her, “I think they’re somewhere in the desert.” She said, rubbing her temples, “I think it happened a while ago, I’m sorry I didn’t warn you sooner.” She sighed.  
“Yeah, next time your nightwing superpowers kick in and yell “Hey, there’s a kidnapping about to happen” you should probably say something.” Thunder said, irritated, “You should probably stay at the school, you don’t even care about Drake.” He said, glowering at the nightwing.  
“Stop being mean, Thunder.” Piper spoke up, “You can come with us, just in case you have any more visions about where they are. Besides, I think a big scary nightwing bodyguard would be useful.” She said, flapping up to hover beside Scalescorcher, who nodded in agreement.  
“Either way, I’m going to come with you.” Scalescorcher said, “I really don’t want to miss this story, it’s way too interesting so far. You won’t even notice I’m here.” She said, crossing her talons.  
“Fine.” Thunder huffed. If they could keep up and stay out of the way, he was okay with it, “How about you, Kapok, I thought you didn’t want to come?”  
“Uh, I can be your spy. I’m really good at being quiet, and the camouflage scales help too. Plus I care about Drake, I want him to be safe too.” He said, turning a vibrant purple color, Piper nodded encouragingly.  
“Whatever, if you can’t keep up you can go back.” Thunder said, turning to fly north, his troop of dragons tailing behind him.


	10. Chapter 10

Nobody spoke for a while, Thunder was pumping his wings as hard as he could and could tell the others were struggling to keep up. After less than an hour of flying, Thunder’s wings started cramping and he had to slow down, which the others seemed to appreciate, namely Kapok, who had let out a loud sigh once Thunder started matching their speed.  
At one point Piper flapped up to him, guiding him slightly away from the group to speak to him, “Hey I want to talk to you.” She said breathlessly, her wings flapping twice for every wingbeat Thunder took.  
“Me too,” Said Thunder, narrowing his eyes at her, “Why do you really want the nightwing to come with us, wouldn’t it be easier to have a smaller group?”  
Piper huffed, “I already said, in case she has any more visions.” She changed the subject quickly, “What exactly is the plan here anyway? Surely we aren’t just gonna barge in on a bunch of icewings, I probably couldn’t handle even one.”   
Thunder paused to think, pretending to swat away some flies to bide himself time, he’d been too busy worrying about what the kidnappers might do to Drake to think of much of a plan. He knew he wanted Kapok to do some spying and maybe even infiltrate their group, but he hadn’t thought much past that. “Hey guys,” He called, “Any idea for a plan?”   
Piper scoffed at him and Kapok nearly fell out of the sky in surprise, “Surely you’re joking?” He called to Thunder, flapping up to Piper and Thunder’s eye level.  
Thunder shrugged, “I haven’t really had a chance to think about it, I was hoping we could work it out together. Scalescorcher, anymore visions.” She shook her head ruefully, Thunder sighed.  
“Well,” Scalescorcher spoke in her rattling voice, “I think it makes sense to send the rainwing as a scout once we spot them, if we spot them.”  
Kapok twitched angrily, “You can’t tell me what to do, nightwing.” He said, surprising Thunder with his suddenly aggressive tone.  
“Well, Kapok, I was thinking that too.” Interjected Thunder, “There aren’t many places to hide in the desert and it’d be useless to send any of the rest of us to figure out their plan since we can’t turn invisible.” Thunder said, glancing around at the other dark purple and sparkly yellow dragons who stood out like burns on white scales.  
Kapok huffed and agreed reluctantly, “But what about after we find out their plan, are we really going to try and kill them?” Piper asked nervously, wringing her talons.  
“Well, I’m not sure, I think bartering would be the most effective.” Thunder said, flapping over to Scalescorcher, “Unless you have something really dangerous in that breastplate.” He said, glancing at the shiny leather breastplate she was wearing.  
“Let’s land for a minute and consider our options, I think everyone’s getting irritable by now with all this flying.” Piper said, glancing at Kapok, who was still frowning.  
They landed beside a crop of cacti, hoping it would shield them from view enough if the icewings showed up. Scalescorcher removed the breastplate and emptied the contents, revealing a bag filled with small nuts, a simplified map of Pyrrhia with the kingdoms marked with red X’s, a thin gold chain necklace, and a silver dagger.  
“This is perfect!” Declared Thunder, brandishing the dagger, which was lighter than expected, “We can totally threaten them with this.” He said, waving it around hopefully.  
Scalescorcher shuffled her talons nervously, “Well, I’m pretty opposed to hurting other dragons. I don’t think that will be as useful as you think.” She said, stealing the dagger out of Thunder’s talons to reveal that the blade retracted into its hilt when you pushed on the end of it. Thunder groaned, it was a theater knife. “I think we can still use it to threaten dragons, if you must, but as far as killing, I’m not sure.” She chuckled, replacing it in her breastplate.  
Piper, meanwhile, was studying the small map, “Where do you think we are on here?” She asked.  
Scalescorcher sidled up to her, placing her talon in the center of the desert, “Probably around here, we’re about half a day’s flight in, so I think- ouch.” She said, clutching her horns suddenly, leaning into Piper, who looked equally distressed and flustered as she tried to support the larger nightwing. Scalescorcher’s pain seemed to subside quickly as she sat up to apologize to Piper, who refused to look at Scalescorcher and played with some dry grass instead.  
“Was that another vision?” Thunder asked, snatching the map to look at it as well.  
“Yes, I think so.” Scalescorcher said, rubbing her temples, “Though I have no idea what it means, it looks like a sandwing fortress, but it’s definitely not in the kingdom of sand, and there’s a dying dragon.” She flinched, “Well, burning, I should say, gosh she’s completely black.” She shook off the vision and refocused her eyes.  
“What do you mean, it’s not in the kingdom of sand?” Piper asked, looking at the map in Thunder’s talons hopefully.  
“It looks like it’s almost in the ice kingdom, it’s snowing there.” She blinked, looking north as if it would start snowing soon, but it was far too hot for that in the desert.  
“I know where that is!” Piper cried gleefully, “That’s princess Blaze’s old fortress, from before queen Glacier died. It has to be! I’ve been there before.” She swished her tail, causing Scalescorcher to jump away from her just in case she got poked by her barbed tail.  
“Awesome, at least we know where we’re going now, and we know where Kapok can start looking… Kapok?” Thunder looked around desperately, the thin orange dragon had disappeared.


	11. Chapter 11

Thunder rapidly scanned the dunes below him, Kapok couldn’t have gone far with the short amount of time they stopped paying attention to him. He was furious at the rainwing, he was wasting everyone’s valuable time by disappearing when another dragon’s life was at stake.  
After searching through the cactus for anything that looked out of place and finding nothing, Piper decided Kapok had gone to the Scorpion Den, which was the nearest settlement and water source in relation to them. They headed there quickly, not feeling they had much time. Scalescorcher voiced her concern that he might have been kidnapped, but Piper insisted that even sandwings, with their pale sand-like scales, couldn’t blend in as well as a rainwing could. Thunder had also complained about their time constraints and stated that they probably didn’t need him anyway, and after all, if Kapok had run away, surely that meant he was too selfish to really care about Drake like he did. Piper had snapped at him, growling at Thunder that he wouldn’t have come in the first place if he wasn’t worried about Drake, she suspected that Kapok was still mad that Scalescorcher had come for whatever reason and that it would be her who soothed him, and they flew on.  
Thunder had no experience picking out invisible rainwings from the environment, he hardly paid attention in that class and ended up practically at the opposite side of the room when asked to find a camouflaged rainwing for an exam, which left the rainwing student very happy and his teacher very irritated. The entire flight to the Scorpion Den they saw neither horn nor tail of Kapok, Thunder worried along with the others that they might not be able to see him in the Scorpion Den either if he was truly hiding from them.  
Soon, the Scorpion Den had risen from the dunes, sparkling with waves of heat and dragon scales. The group landed loudly in front of the two burly guards at the entrance gate to the bustling city, Piper headed them, claiming she could worm information out of the guards easily. “Hello, we were wondering if you’ve had a rainwing come through here recently?” She started, a polite nod to her voice, “He was probably bright red, if I had to guess.” She said calmly, smiling charmingly.  
The guards glanced at each other, then the one with a deep gouge in his right horn spoke, “As a matter of fact, we did.” He said gruffly, “Said his friends would probably come looking for him, didn’t he, Sandworm?” The identical guard nodded. “Well, I’m afraid I can’t let you inside, that rainwing said one of you was after him, right?” Sandworm nodded again.  
“What!” Piper hissed, “None of us would ever hurt anyone. Who-” She stopped, Thunder had gotten her attention to whisper in her ear. She smiled, “How about just me? I’m just like you, Sandworm, weren’t you on Blaze’s side? I think I remember hearing about a dragon called wormtail, that’s you, right?” She said, not daring to look at the beaten dragon who, Thunder noticed, was carefully hiding his tail from view.  
Sandworm nodded for a third time, “Oh, let ‘er in Gopher.” The other dragon looked shocked, “This is jus’ a dragonet, and a tiny one at that, can’t kill a dragon that easily, even a rainwing, beside, wasn’ it the nightwing he told us to look ou’ for.” He said, pointing his spear at Scalescorcher.  
“Uh, well, sure. I guess you can come in then, but the rest of you should stay outside just in case, and stay where we can see you.” Said Gopher, still looking shocked.  
Thunder quickly whisked Scalescorcher away from the guards, and pulled her to sit in the shade of the sandstone wall, where the guards could see them but not hear them. “Gosh I hope he’s still in there. Isn’t it a bit odd he went through the gates when he can turn invisible?” Said the nightwing.  
“Not in the Scorpion Den,” Thunder said, “They’re super heavily guarded after Onyx attempted to take the throne. Maybe he wanted to be found.” Thunder shrugged, “My question is, why is Kapok worried about you? You’re the least violent nightwing I’ve met, even after seeing you, acting.” He said, considering her nervously as if maybe Kapok knew something he didn’t.  
“I- I have an idea.” She said, shifting her talons nervously, “Since I’m older, maybe he thinks I was at the volcano when the nightwings were torturing rainwings. I thought I made it pretty clear that I have no will to hurt anything though, I’m a pacifist.” She said frustratedly, :This whole thing is stupid, wish he hadn’t run off and wasted time, we’re more alike than he thinks.” She said wistfully, looking around the walls to see if Piper had come out yet.  
Thunder considered that possibility, it certainly seemed likely, but he didn’t think Kapok had that much anger inside of him, back at the academy he had seemed quiet and scrollish, but now he was starting to show his true colors. The dragons sat in silence for a while, Thunder was starting to tire from the harsh sun when a huge white body came hurling over the sandstone wall, straight at Thunder.  
He noticed very quickly that it was an icewing as cold, sweating scales crashed into him, he tried to fight the dragon off unsuccessfully, she was nearly twice the size of Thunder, and quite plump. He heard a familiar high pitched voice as the cold white dragon was dragged off of him. He was relieved to see Piper along with an ashamed looking Kapok beside her. “I’ve captured us a prisoner,” Piper said gleefully, holding up the icewing’s talons, “She was spying on us as we were trying to leave, kind of hard for her to blend in here though, gosh you’re shiny.”  
Thunder had to agree, the panting dragon was so reflective it seemed like she was giving off her own light, “You didn’t have to throw me, you’re lucky I even agreed to come with you.” She said, rubbing her shoulder as if she had taken worse damage than Thunder, who was still recovering from her rough landing.  
Thunder ignored the icewing situation for the moment and started at Kapok first, howling, “What did you think you were doing, do you know what Drake is having to go through? That’s a huge chunk of time we could’ve spent catching up to him, this is exactly why I didn’t want you to come.” The dragon crumpled underneath his words, looking near crying. “And what exactly were you thinking, hauling an icewing out with you?” He turned on Piper, more curious than anything.  
“Well,” she started, patting Thunder on the shoulder to calm him down, which didn’t help at all, “Darkness here said she would help us infiltrate the icewings, right?” She said, glaring at the icewing.  
Darkness glared back even harder, “I’m not helping anyone, I just want to avenge my father. He was killed by that monster, I won’t hesitate to get what I deserve.” She said, digging her talons into the sand.  
“Drake is not a monster!” Thunder roared, “This is ridiculous, we don’t need her.” He stepped threateningly towards the icewing, who looked totally unphased, even amused.  
“I’m trying to convince her too,” Piper said to Thunder, “It was the icewings who killed your father, you agreed with me a minute ago. They were the ones who sent you on that suicide mission, it wasn’t Drake’s fault he defended himself!” Piper shrilled.  
The icewing smirked, fully aware Drake had done far more than “defend himself.” Scalescorcher stepped forward into their circle, “Wait, Drake killed your father, why?” Thunder realized, ruefully, that he never explained Drake’s curse to her. He quickly explained his run-ins with the icewings, the attempted kidnapping, and his leaving the winglet, which everybody thought was due to a severe flying injury. “This dragon happened to be the one who escaped after threatening to kill me.” He hissed at the icewing, recognizing her voice.  
She hissed back, “I didn’t want to kill you, I just wanted to get out of sixth circle, I knew we were expendable but I just wanted a chance, if only we’d brought chains like I suggested-.” She said, gulping suddenly and sinking back to the sand. Scalescorcher patted her nervously, unsure what to do about the depressed icewing next to her.  
“They all probably think she’s dead, shouldn’t be too hard to get her back in though since she’s still in enough to attempt to spy for them.” Piper said, reaching forward to massage the icewing’s shoulders as well.  
Kapok dared to speak up, “Um, guys. I’m starting to feel really bad about wasting time, we should start flying.” He gulped, “I also bought some water, I thought we might get thirsty.” He said, producing a pouch of oasis water to share among the group, which everyone was grateful for.  
The wing of dragons all agreed they were wasting daylight, as the sun had now started sinking below the walls of the Scorpion Den, they flew north again, surrounding the fat icewing, who, to Thunder’s disapproval, insisted on flying considerably slower than they were before.


	12. Chapter 12

Their flight was much quieter from that moment on. Thunder had attempted to apologize to Kapok twice by now, but the scowling indigo dragon didn't speak. Thunder also thought more about what Scalescorcher had said. She hinted at not growing up on the volcano with the rest of the nightwings, but Thunder had no idea where else she would live. He decided not to ask due to it being a bit too personal and not wanting to be as nosy as Poi. He was starting to miss Jade Mountain and the dragons who studied there, he brought his drumsticks with him as they were still in his shoulder pouch when he left in his panic, but didn't have anything to drum on. He also missed being on the ground after a while, even though he was a skywing, his body was starting to ache, and eventually they had to stop and rest.  
The other dragons were massively relieved to take a break. It was getting hard to see anyway, and Thunder was sure the icewings had to rest at some point too. They all chatted about their plan in the meantime; Scalescorcher was to threaten one of the dragons with the play-knife, Piper and Darkness were to negotiate, and Thunder would free Drake if things didn’t go well with talking, which Thunder assumed it wouldn’t.  
Kapok still refused to communicate with the group, and with heavy reliance on his spying in their plan, it was quite frustrating to all of them. Thunder finally had enough and exploded on him, “You’re utterly useless,” He hissed, Kapok looked down ashamedly and turned colbalt-grey, which only added to Thunder’s anger, “You’d think you didn’t even care about Drake, I don’t even know why you came. I have the feeling someone else convinced you to come in the first place.” He accused, glaring at Piper, who had moved over to try and deescalate the argument.  
“You think he really doesn’t care?” Piper asked, turning on Thunder now, “I only had to convince him because he’s so worried about Scalescorcher. You know he cares about Drake, more than you would ever know, hell, you all were clawmates and friends. I hate this, we shouldn’t be fighting right now.” She said, shaking her head at Scalescorcher, who looked like she was trying to become a shadow with how still she was standing. “Why don’t we all just talk this out like civilized dragons?” Piper said, beckoning to Scalescorcher, who joined their group, but stayed far away from Kapok, who shook when she got too close.  
“Why don’t we start with what Kapok is worried about.” She patted the rainwing encouragingly, he hadn’t taken his eyes off Scalescorcher.  
“I’m worried that this is all a trick.” He hissed outright after a few moments, “What if her visions were a lie and she’s luring us into a trap? We know good and well that nightwings don’t have powers anymore, especially when they’re as old as her, they were hatched on the volcano without moonlight.” He spat.  
Scalescorcher looked utterly offended and quivered for a moment, everyone remained silent, waiting for her retort, “You’re so stupid.” She hissed after some time, “I didn’t grow up on that fucking volcano, I thought that was obvious judging by the fact that I do in fact have the ability to see the future. I was hatched in- in Possibility with my nightwing mother and- and rainwing father!” She roared, causing Kapok to stumble backwards in surprise, the rest of the group echoed his expression of shock.  
“You’re half rainwing?” Piper said, “I knew you were different!” She sprung forward to touch the ruff that Scalescorcher was cleverly hiding by folding it down along her neck. She looked terrified to have another dragon this close to her. “I knew nightwings didn’t have this, or this!” She stated, pointing to the small nose horn that almost perfectly blended into her scales.  
Thunder was shocked by his blindness, how had he not noticed these extra accessories? “Wait.” Thunder interjected, “Aren’t you 15?” (“16,” she corrected him,) “How did your parents even meet, I thought nightwings stayed away from the continent during the war?” He was genuinely curious now.  
“Well, it’s a bit personal,” She said, rubbing the spot where Piper had pulled on her ruff, “My mother was exiled for betraying the queen, she didn't like them kidnapping dragons and all. I don’t think they expected her to go as far as to marry a rainwing.” She chuckled.  
“That’s impossible.” Kapok said in disbelief, “Surely I would’ve heard if a nightwing was in our rainforest.” He seemed offended.  
“Well, no offense,” Scalescorcher said nervously, “But your tribe didn’t notice the animus tunnels for a long time, that’s why you have those scars isn’t it?” She asked, rather pryingly.  
Kapok flushed a deep red, “Yes, and that’s why I didn’t trust you.” He admitted.  
“It’s okay,” Scalescorcher said suddenly, to Thunder’s surprise, “I shouldn’t have kept it from all of you. I made a deal with the dragonets of destiny so that I could be in a winglet as a nightwing, It makes sense that you wouldn’t know with how hard I tried to hide it.” She shook her head.  
“No, he still shouldn’t have run off like that, you’d think his friends would be more important than his own personal vendetta.” Thunder hissed.  
“You clearly don’t understand trauma, Thunder.” Piper tutted, smacking him with her wings, “They really should add a psychology class at the Academy.”  
“Fine,” Thunder said, finally giving in, “As long as he helps us with Drake, I’ll let him off.” He nodded pointedly at Kapok, who had shifted his scales to a dark purple that matched the night sky.  
“Would you dragonets stop arguing and catch us some food?” Whined Darkness from over their shoulders. Scalescorcher smirked and produced the nut mix from within her breastplate, the icewing probably wouldn’t be too happy with that.


	13. Chapter 13

The winglet settled around a fire Piper had managed to set using a large cactus she had uprooted from the ground and shared Scalescorcher’s mix of peanuts and macadamia nuts, which Darkness had indignantly taken a few talonfulls of before deciding it wasn’t worth it and threw the pouch back to its owner. They were utterly exhausted from their pretty much nonstop flight and fell asleep after a while, Thunder couldn’t help but notice as he kept watch that Piper had fallen asleep with her back up against Scalescorcher’s tail and that Darkness rolled as far away from their campfire as possible in her sleep before Thunder woke her up and told her off for being too far away for him to watch her.  
The next morning, Thunder was woken up by Piper nudging him dangerously with her barbed tail. “Watch it.” He muttered, still half asleep.  
“Get up, we should keep moving.” She said. The sun was now rising over the edge of the dunes, blinding Thunder as he stretched his sore muscles to get them ready for their long flight. They were all awake soon enough, mostly complaining about the pain in their wings and about how much farther they had to go. Thunder couldn’t help but agree that he was exhausted, but he was spurred on by the thoughts of what might happen to Drake if they didn’t move soon, and scolded them all on taking too long to clean up before they were flying again.  
“Easy for you to say, mr. Bigwings.” Piper teased as she glided lazily beside him.  
Thunder flashed her a look that made her giggle as they continued flying. He was starting to feel brotherly feelings towards the sandwing and felt rather like a mudwing with their sibling bonding. The journey seemed much slower than it did before even though they had a shorter distance to fly now than yesterday. Eventually, the hot sands started shifting to a light soil, the terrain started sloping craggily upwards, and the torrid climate started turning more mild and cool. This progression seemed to spur more power into Thunder’s wings as he flew ahead of the group. He stomped around eagerly every time they stopped for breaks until they were in the air again.  
At a certain point, where the ground’s incline increased dramatically, Piper demanded they stop, lest they be spotted by an icewing patrol. She prepped Kapok for a long while before sending him north up the mountain, he had already turned invisible as he left.  
“When do I get to go?” Darkness asked anxiously.  
“Once Kapok gets back, I want to know the situation before we send you in, they’ll want to know where you came from, you know.” Piper insisted, causing Darkness to sulk.  
Snow was falling heavily along with the sun by the time Kapok arrived back, panting. He described the icewing situation in great detail. “I could hear them through the door, I don’t think they realized it wasn’t closed all the way. I couldn’t see Drake but I assume he’s tied up in there. They’re waiting for someone, then they’re going to kill Drake. Once I heard that I hurried back here.” He said, still struggling for breath.  
“Wonder who they’re waiting for?” Piper asked.  
“Oh, they’re not acting under Queen Snowfall’s orders. I think that’s why they’re so, um, disorganized.” He smirked at Darkness, who didn’t seem to care.  
“I thought you knew that, we’re loyal to princess Icicle.” She stated proudly.  
Piper gasped, “I thought she was dead.”  
Darkness shook her head, “Nope, she’s trying to regain her power by taking back the powers of Arctic’s Amulet. And for the record, the only reason I’m telling you this is because frankly, I don’t want that seawing to die.” This was the first sign of compassion Thunder had seen from Darkness and he was glad to see her change of heart. He had never heard about the amulet, even in all the reading he’d done, but didn’t have time to pry for questions as they were all streaming towards Blaze’s old fortress, knives out and teeth ready, Thunder felt excruciatingly nervous.


End file.
